Navigating the empty shell: the role of articulation work in platform structures

Abstract This article explores platform workers’ strategies for producing sustainable, quality services within structures that simultaneously over- and under-determine their work. We present findings from interviews with U.S.-based mental health professionals (n = 48) working on teletherapy platforms. These therapists describe navigating both the presence of platformic controls absence features supporting professional best practices regulatory requirements. this as “empty shell” characteristic platforms argue it is a central technique through which create scale. Our detail communicative employ to navigate empty shell provide care clients. can be seen form “articulation work,” concept drawn sociology Attending articulation work in an emerging labor context, such teletherapy, contributes our understanding politics